Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Thanks Gary,
The bridge really was nothing very hard.
The girders were cut down from plastic strips I had left over from the GCJ station bridge. The piers and road bed is all timber covered with Scalescenes brick paper. The road supports under the bridge roadway are grey card. The retaining walls are dead easy with Scalescenes brick paper over foam board. The narrow piers within the retaining walls are cereal box card covered with brick paper.
The girders were distressed with pastels and hairspray.
It takes time of course, but is well within the scope of even modellers new to the hobby.
Gormo

 

Well folks,
I have been gathering materials and parts for the build of some Block Instruments that will form an interesting side to the operation of the railway.
Essentially, it`s three separate stations communicating with each other via Bell Codes in order to safely transfer trains from one location to the next.
It`s quite a complicated build so I`ve started a separate bench topic for it.
Developing & Building Bell Code Block Instruments.
Gormo

 

Thanks Echidna......
I always try and find a way to make most things with jigs if possible, it helps with those repetitive processes and give a consistent result.
Gormo

 

This video covers the progress to date on the Block Instrument build.
It has kept me away from my GCJ thread for a good while and I`m not anywhere near finished yet.



Gormo

 

Well howdy train nuts.....
There is so much going on at Great Chesterford, but 99% of it is to do with Block Instruments....currently interrupted by Christmas and all that getting together and arrangements and buying stuff and putting up Christmas trees and decorations and now getting ready to take them all down again kind of stuff......plus the odd hangover......and a gurgling tummy that`s had too much rich food.....Yay !!!!..............reminds one of the old Chinese saying. " Wherever you are, wherever you be, always let you wind blow free "
Speaking of Christmas....yes I did mention Christmas didn`t I.??....Christmas brings a bounty for us model railway people of a certain age, who have most things that they need in life, with the exception of model trains.......you can never have enough model trains......I mean we start with one....but one is never enough and quite frankly, I have no idea what the upper limit is.....so we just keep collecting through our lives.......somebody has to do it.....why not us.?......and when Wifey says " What would you like for Christmas.? ".....well.....Hey baby.....have I got some ideas for you !
"
So Santa`s little helper came with me on a shopping trip to our local model shop and she bought me some goodies for Christmas.
More waffle and pics to follow.
Gormo

 

Good guess Gary,....
Well first up is a weathered Banana Van from Dapol





Then a Salt Van from Dapol.....it just looks too clean, but we can remedy that.




And some vehicles for the air field area and surrounds.
A Scottish Infantry Bedford





An RAF Sherpa Van




A Black Taxi.........Murray`s Pub management suggests " Don`t drink and drive.....take a cab home "





And a Royal Mail Morris J Van




Now folks, when I had a look at this pic above with the Royal Mail Van, I thought to myself, what`s that in the glass on the door in Julie`s Gallery.?
To me it looks like a dogs head in the lower left hand corner with a sort of ghostly figure standing behind the dog.??
I cropped the picture to enlarge that area to show what I mean.





I did not put a dog in the shop.......it`s probably a reflection off something else across the street, but it looks like a dogs head to me.?

OOooooooohhh!!!!!

So they were nice little goodies to get for Christmas and they will add to the overall ambience of the railway.

Gormo

PS....an overall shot of the airfield.

 

Well I had a mini disaster the other day prior to Christmas.
I was preparing the railway for the impending visit from the Grandsons when my controller for the Branch line at GCJ decided to throw in the towel.
It was as dead as a maggot......fizzled out....caput !!!!....zonked !!!....cactus horrendous......quite simply ....stuffed !!!!.....no amount of testing alternatives and double checking connections and trying other transformers could encourage it back to life.
The blessed thing would have to be thirty years old, so it was a waste of time complaining to the manufacturer......it`s had it`s life and that`s that...nothing lasts forever.....








Fortunately, there is a company here in Oz called CDA, which makes an almost identical model to this old antique.
The local supplier is Casula Hobbies in Liverpool, so I lobbed out there today to pick up a replacement.

This pic is from CDA`s web page.



I had to print out a new front panel overlay, so as to match the original set up and the new controller had to have a millimeter or two taken off it`s height and width so as to fit in position correctly.
However, now it is installed and working properly. Problem is I have another three controllers all thirty years old........will they die one by one.???....who knows.?




Gormo

 

While I was out at Casula Hobbies, I checked out their stock of second hand British locomotives.
Casula deals mainly in Australian prototype models, but they do have a sprinkling of other odds and sods and a good range of all things modelling.
I spotted a nice little Bachmann Southern Region N Class Mixed Traffic loco that was willing me to take it home.
Now as you know folks, I am a GWR enthusiast, however I am also a sucker for a nice little loco from any company, so you will see variation on my railway with a contrived history to suit.
These locos were based on a GWR design anyway, so they are cousins to the GWR.
This loco is from a deceased estate and it is obvious that the previous owner loved what he was doing. There is quite a bit of extra detail added here and there.
We have lamps, screw link couplings......some modest weathering probably more through age and dust, but it suits anyway.








Real Coal and tools





A loco crew





The detail is all around















And it pulls a train too.........I have been giving it a good run this afternoon and it has freed up a bit and runs considerably better now. I think it had been sitting idle for quite some time.?




Here is a short video of it running. This is not for the purists....there are GWR wagons in this train.......enjoy.



Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
An unexpected parcel turned up at my door this morning. It was from Chris M from Canberra......a member of this forum.
Chris has sent me a Hornby Dublo locomotive and a Royal Mail coach. Apparently he has had them for many years and now does not intend to use them for his future layout, as he is going all American.
The locomotive has been with Chris for 46 years and he bought it second hand.
I must admit I have never considered using these locomotives on my railway, as I had always wrongly assumed that the flanges were too big for modern code 100 track.
I was wrong.......
It runs extremely well for a locomotive of this vintage.
It`s a die cast body so it weighs a ton........locomotives are supposed to be heavy aren`t they..??









The tender is die cast chassis with a plastic top. I had to adjust the back to backs on the tender wheels, just a minor tweak to get it to 100%.









There are signs of age, but hey !!!!.... we all get older......




So straight off the bat, it was running really well. I did some minor maintenance and kept running it because Chris reckons it hasn`t been run for donkey`s years.
What was becoming obvious after some time was a tendency to run at a certain speed and then taper off. I gave it a good session in reverse and that seemed to free it up a bit more.
After a good run the body was getting quite warm, so there was something causing it to work harder than it should.
There is an adjustment screw at the top end of the motor which moves the motor bearing up or down to suit. On the other end of the armature is the drive pinion. Now if there is too much movement in the armature, it`s possible for the pinion not to mesh correctly with the gear wheel. If there is not enough movement in the armature there will be too much friction on the bearing and the armature will not rotate freely.
So tonight I adjusted said bearing. The loco has gone from requiring 50% power on my controller to run consistently, down to about 5%. In other words, it`s running sweet as a nut.
More running will benefit this bearing setting and the loco will free up a little more as time goes on.
I have a video of it running before the final tweaking, so just bear in mind it`s running a lot better now.
Thanks Chris.....you are a gentleman....



Gormo

 

Ah yes Keith......very true and very convenient for my fabricated railway history on GCJ........
Gormo

 

Well yes, I agree Toto,
I have checked it by eye a couple of times and I can`t see it.
I will have to try the camera again.
It`s funny how these things work. Quite a few years ago we were in Tasmania. Whilst touring about we went to Port Arthur.......a colonial penal institution with a sad history and now, no longer used except as a tourist attraction. It was the site of a terrible massacre in 1996 with 35 people killed and 25 wounded by a maniac with a rifle.
The information center there, which is also the entrance, has a wall displaying photographs taken by visitors over many years. Quite a few of the photographs, taken innocently by the visitors, have extra detail in them that was not apparent to the people taking the photograph at the time. It has only been revealed after the photographs have been processed.
For example.......two ladies posing for a pic in the garden and in the background, a see through image of a lady in a crinoline dress......there were a number of photographs from all different people with ghostly figures in them. The most disturbing for me, and it still sends a chill through me, was a little boy who was posing by a table in the surgeons house. Next to the boy and stood towering menacingly over him was a cloaked, hooded dark figure well over 6 feet tall. Obviously the figure was not apparent to the boys parents when the photo was taken.
Our best friends had a chilling experience at the surgeons house when they had visited a few years before us.
After looking at this wall of photos, my initial reaction was " Jesus ......what are we walking into ? "......however we went on in and amazingly had a lovely, non eventful day with no unwelcome visitors showing up in our photographs.
I can`t explain the dog and the figure, but I`m not surprised that it only shows up in a photograph.???.......
Gormo

 

G`day Echidna,
Yes it`s a wonderful thing........it does not have the detail of a modern loco, but it has a presence to it, almost like that of the real thing when it comes into the platform. I think it`s something to do with the weight of the model........or it`s mass......it just says " I`m here.....look at me ".
The engineering is excellent........made to last and absolutely bomb proof......perfect for children.
The running is very good now, but it does need a controller with enough amps to drive it. My home made controllers struggle with it, whereas the store bought models drive it easily.
I had it circulating for about 20 mins this afternoon whilst I was tinkering with some thing else and it was just cruising consistently. The adjustment of the bearing has done the job...
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Here`s the latest update as posted on YouTube, for GCJ.
It`s basically a summary of what has been posted on the forum periodically over the last month or so.



Gormo